This thesis investigates how the Ecotourism Movement can restore the natural environment. The typology in this study is an urban, ecology complex including a museum, restaurant/bar, flexible community space, and outdoor park. The location is the current Mid America Steel factory site located in downtown Fargo, North Dakota bordering the notorious Red River.
Pollution, depletion of natural resources, sprawl, and lack of knowledge flood the world today. Urban Ecotourism reduces the ecological footprint of a traveler through education and interaction, generates revenue for conservation and scientific investigation for the natural environment, and improves the well being of people overall.
Visitors are educated through repetition and exhibits that engage all senses. The existing historical structures are adapted and re-used to house the new museum, restaurant, and banquet spaces. To regenerate biodiversity on this urban site, the riparian buffer zone of the Red River is replanted.
Urban Ecotourism, Adaptive Re-use, Ecology Center